What Would Have Happened? Part VII: Best Man
by Em Pataki
Summary: What would have happened if Helga had challenged Arnold to an air hockey game after the wedding.
1. Chapter 1

**What Would Have Happened? Part VI: Best Man**

**Chapter 1: Her Way**

_Arcade_

Arnold and Helga stood by each of their coaches, who were determined to prove which was number one. All through the game, Arnold's words were spinning in Jack's head…

_What do you love more; winning or your wife?_

When it came down to the final point, Jack had an easier time than he thought letting Tish win the challenge. Not only that, admitting to her she was number one.

Hearing this from him for the first time made no question about it that it was not too late for the wedding.

_Church_

Arnold and Helga stood side by their coaches, happy to see things had worked out between them. The only thing that made Helga happier, was when she caught the bouquet Tish through.

As she laid there in the arms of her classmate, fantasizing about it one day being the two of them at the alter, she said "I do, I do, oh I do...NOT want you to touch me ever again, football head!"

After thanking Arnold for helping him make the right decision, Jack heard his bride ask an interesting question "Did you let me win the air hockey match this morning?"

The honeymoon and the fact that he had finally given into her didn't matter. She now felt she had to prove it to him. Arnold stood there, watching the two of them drive away as Helga walked up with her flowers.

"Man, I never realized how tough marriage is." Arnold said to Helga.

Helga began to shake, knowing how competitive she had always been with him. He didn't seem to find it in anyway amusing, yet she just couldn't make herself change.

"Yeah well...I'm sure it's nothing. I mean they're coaches for crying out loud! What do you expect?" Helga snapped.

Arnold sighed at Helga's point and replied "Yeah I guess you're right. I just never figured competition should have anything to do with relationships."

Helga heard these words and suddenly came up with a brilliant scheme. "Then prove it hairboy!"

Arnold shrugged his shoulders as he asked "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I challenge you to one game of air hockey tomorrow. If competition doesn't mean anything to you, you won't care if I beat the stuffing out of you!"

Helga then walked away, satisfied with her chance to be with Arnold while still maintaining her reputation.

Arnold stood there a bit puzzled. Even if she didn't care about competition either, why would she want to spend the day with him? Surely she could come up with a better wager than that.

_The Boarding House_

Arnold walked inside to see Phil tapping his fingers on the table at Pookey's senseless safari act. If they weren't going to eat the tiger fly (why was she wasting her time)?

"Hey grandpa." Phil turned his head to see his grandson enter the room.

"Hey there short man! How was the wedding? Okay I guess. It ended with them skipping the honeymoon to have a rematch at the arcade."

"Hmm nothing wrong with that. Your grandma and I couldn't afford a real wedding, so everyone just sat on the bleachers of the baseball field, while the preacher married us at the pitcher's mound. Oh what a glorious day…" Phil sighed, placing his chin in his hand, thinking back to it.

"Uh huh, well now Helga wants a match with me at the arcade to prove competition is an important part of a relationship." Arnold explained to Phil.

"Arnold, did I ever tell you about the time I took you grandma out to dinner for our anniversary?"

"Uhh no."

"Ho boy! Every time she saw me drive towards a restaurant, she said 'Not there". Finally, I gave in and let her pick.

"I don't get it?"

'The point short man is that every relationship is full of competition, but if you want it to last, just do things her way."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Word Has Gotten Round

After hearing his elder's abrupt advice, Arnold decided to take a walk in the park…

_Do things HER way? Why would I care if I have no feelings for her? Then again, why am I even considering this if competition means nothing to me? Maybe I..._WHOA!

Arnold looked up to see he had bumped into Gerald. Although Gerald wouldn't say it, he was starting to see Pataki's point about Arnold not keeping his eyes on the road.

"Sorry Gerald."

"It's cool man. So, you enjoy being in the wedding?" he asked.

Arnold looked down at the ground as he rubbed his neck and said "Uhh sort of."

Gerald lifted an eyebrow at the response and gasped "What do you mean sort of? The got the coach to go through with it. Isn't that all you were aiming for?"

"Yeah, but didn't you notice they drove straight to the arcade when it was over?" Arnold pointed out.

Gerald shrugged his shoulders at the question and replied "So? It's _their _honeymoon. Some people like competition, others don't see life that way. It's always nice you're there for people to talk to, but you can't always expect them to take your advice."

Arnold sighed at the end of the sentence, knowing Helga had always pointed out he couldn't keep his nose out of other people's business. If they weren't always going to take his advice, why not just let everyone do things their own way?

As he stood pondering this, Sid and Stinky saw their two friends standing on the sidewalk. "Hey Arnold! Ya enjoy coach's wedding?" Stinky asked.

"Yeah, how'd it feel walking down the aisle with Helga?" Sid laughed.

"Uhh Sid. Now's not the time." Gerald glared at his friend, who didn't seem to catch the perturbed look on their friend's face.

"That part was okay. Then she challenged me to a game of air hockey tomorrow when I told her competition has nothing to do with relationships. She said if I bother to show up, it proves it does mean something to me."

"You can't let a _girl _beat you! Who cares about the wedding! You can't walk into school hearing Helga gloat about you being too chicken to even show up to play!" Sid panicked, as if he was the one the game was riding on.

"Who all's comin' Arnold?" Stinky couldn't help but ask.

"Well, it was just supposed to be me and her, but if it's that important, everyone from class might as well come and watch."

"Hot dang! What a way to spend a Sunday! What do ya get if ya win?" Stinky had to ask.

"Yeah, what's her plan to lure you there with?" Sid anxiously asked.

"I think just seeing me show up is supposed to prove she was right about everything. Even if I'm only doing it not to look bad, the idea behind the game still makes me look like a loser for giving into her ways. It's not about who wins." Arnold explained.

"Well don't worry Arnold. We'll be there to support you." Sid patted his friend on the back, as he watched Arnold and Gerald walk away.

"Ya know, after we make a few phone calls." Sid and Stinky laughed. Not that they wanted to humiliate their friend, but who could miss this? Even if showing up did make Helga look right about everything, beating her could still make her look like a loser.

"My gosh! It's like they're Tish and Jack...only those two BOTH care about competition." Sid pointed out, while he and Stinky began inviting the class to the arcade the next day.

_Phoebe's Room_

"Are you sure you wouldn't like to go home and change Helga?" the polite girl asked her friend, who was still sitting in her maid of honor dress.

Helga sat on the bed, leaned back with her legs crossed and said "Pttss...tell me, how is this any worse than having to see my family?"

"I suppose you have a point. What are you going to do about your match with Arnold if he does show up?"

Helga rolled her eyes and scoffed "It'll just be me and him there. It's not like there will be anyone to humiliate us. If he doesn't show up, I'll never let him live it down, and if he does, I'll just forget it ever happened. You know football head's not one to hold a grudge."

_Arnold's House_

Everything was planned as he hoped, until Arnold kept getting phone call after phone call about the match…

_What time does it take place? How should I dress? Have you already reserved the table for us?_

All he could do was let people show up however and whenever they wanted. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too humiliated. Even if he had believed by that point that competition did mean something, He thought about this until he at last fell asleep with the phone in his hand.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Match

Arnold walked downstairs when he heard something going on in the dining room. Normally Phil would be sitting at the kitchen table, trying to ignore his singing wife. Instead, Arnold opened the dining room door, as he heard Pookie shout…"Whoopie! 'Nother game Slim?"

Phil said "Nope, you won."

Arnold looked at Phil wiping his brow in the kitchen and had to ask "Uhh what was that about? It looked like you two were playing air hockey with two bananas and an orange?"

Phil took a seat at the table and explained "Well short man, when your grandma heard about your little competition, she insisted on showing me a few tricks of her own. I didn't care to know about them, but like I said, things are always easier if you just do things their way."

Arnold stopped to think about this. If he went to ask his grandma for some advice on being a better player, that would mean competition really did mean something to him. At first he was just worried about making an appearance. Now he had to decide what winning the game would mean?

Phil said just let them have their way. He had been doing that with Helga his whole life by allowing her to shove him aside, spit gum at him, and trip him in the halls. Was he going to keep to the status quo, or was he beginning to feel a sweet taste of what giving her a taste of her own medicine would be like? Sure by showing up, it would mean she had been right about the idea of a relationship in the first place, but what would losing the match do to her? Would it make her wish she had kept her mouth shut?

_Arcade_

The group was all gathered around the air hockey table. The only missing people were Helga, Phoebe and Arnold. When the girls walked in, Helga's eyes widened and asked "What are you morons are doing here? Shouldn't you be down at Geraldo field?"

Rhonda grinned as she took notice of the stunned look on her classmate's face and asked "How could we miss the event of the year? Two of our favorite classmates competing over the meaning of true love!"

Phoebe turned to see Helga starting to sweat (not knowing word had gotten around), as Harold whined "Hey! Helga's not my favorite!"

All it took was a little insult to pull her out of her petrifying state. After hearing this classmate (whom she was not a fan of either) burn her, she glared, marched over to point a finger in his face and said "Yeah! Some fan club you'd make anyway, Pink boy!"

Helga took her position at the table, waiting for Arnold to show, when Phoebe noticed Gerald in the corner of the room. She couldn't help but ask how word had gotten out about this.

Gerald gave a sad look at what his classmates were gathered there to watch and said "My man and I ran into Sid and Stinky at the park. Long story short, no one knows how to keep a secret around here."

"Oh dear. What do you suppose will happen when the game is over; even more so, who will win?" Phoebe asked, just as the group heard the door opening.

While the group went silent as if it were an actual showdown, Helga kept an evil glare, crossed her arms and said "So, you decided to show up after all football head? Guess that proves competition does mean something to you."

"Maybe? Just because I showed up doesn't mean we have to play...unless you're worried I'll beat you." Arnold smiled.

Helga gulped as she glanced around the room, never having suspected that from him. It was bad enough the entire class was there. Now if she was going to stand by her statement, she had no choice but to play, and risk being beaten.

"Pttss...afraid? Of you?! Please, get over here and let these so called friends of ours see what competition is all about."

_One Hour Later_

Not much was being said by the classmates. The idea that Arnold had basically reversed Helga's challenge made him seem like a different person.

Helga had a hard time paying attention the entire game, as she saw the look of determination in her beloved's eyes…

_Oh Arnold, what have I turned you into? A day meant for just you and me has been turned into you forming an entirely new and undesirable personality._

Everyone was keeping their eyes on the board except one person. As he had said, Helga was not his favorite person.

Just when Arnold was about to score the winning shot, a banana fell onto the table, and reversed the shot back into his goal.

Helga won the game, while the group listened to Harold cry "Awww! That was mine!"

"Way to go Harold!" Stinky snarled.

"Yeah! Now we'll never know if that shot would have really gone in or not!" Sid exclaimed.

While the group was blaming Harold for the way the game turned out, Arnold noticed Helga wiping her brow with relief. He walked over to her and said "Nice game."

Helga rubbed the back of her neck, ignoring the commotion made by the rest of the class and said "Yeah uhh...maybe next time we can just play with a bowl of fruit in the cafeteria. So about this whole competition thing…"

Arnold stopped her there, seeing the hard time she was having giving in and said "Helga, I don't believe competition is the only thing a relationship should be based on, but I will admit, it plays a part."

A stunned look appeared on her face, never having expected this from him. It was almost hurtful. This wasn't the boy she fell in love with. The boy she loved showed kindness and understanding no matter the situation.

She cocked her brow after hearing these words and asked "Yeah, how do ya figure?"

"Well, nobody wants to be pushed around all the time. At some point, you have to stand up for yourself, whether you're using it as a right to brag or not." Arnold pointed out as Helga began to blush. She knew he was referring to all the times she pushed him around, and enjoyed the idea of him not standing up for himself.

After staring at the floor a moment she said "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya."

The two of them watched the gang leave the arcade, still upset about Arnold's shot being interrupted. When they were alone, Arnold said "I'm actually not surprised that banana worked to well."

"Why is that?"

"This morning my grandparents were playing air hockey with two bananas and an orange." Arnold blushed, while watching the eccentric look forming on his classmate's face.

"Pttss...aren't they the creative type. You know who to go to if you need tennis lessons." Helga smirked.

"Right. Anyway, can I walk you home?" Arnold asked, as Helga's heart began to beat heavily. She stuttered and said "Uhh sure, I mean whatever floats your boat football head."

_**THE END!**_

_**THANKS FOR READING!**_

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